Wild, Wild West’s Proposal: Drill Baby, Drill off Florida’s Beaches

NEWS FROM THE FLORIDA DEMOCRATIC PARTY

Wild, Wild West’s Proposal: Drill Baby, Drill off Florida’s Beaches

The Florida Democratic Party slammed Allen West today for his Sarah Palin echoing “Drill baby, Drill,” stance which would leave Florida’s beaches vulnerable to catastrophic environmental accidents like the one off the Gulf Coast and harm Florida’s tourism driven economy.
 
Currently, the uncontrolled oil spill is gushing thousands of barrels of oil each day into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico threatening Florida’s homeowners, condominiums and Sunshine state beaches, which attract millions of visitors to Florida. In addition, the spill is hurting the viability of the commercial and sport fishing industry and the fragile environment in the path of the oil slick.

Meanwhile, West who has strongly pushed for oil drilling off Florida’s beaches without regard for economic and environmental impact is now uncharacteristically mum on the crisis.

“This is something we have to do,” West said on Fox Business’ Varney & Co. Show on February 26^th.

“Republican congressional candidate Allen West’s drill is marching to Sarah Palin’s hollow and reckless battle cry of ‘Drill baby, drill,’” Florida Democratic Party spokesman Eric Jotkoff said. “His attitude on oil drilling off Florida’s beaches is irresponsible, out of touch and raises a tremendous red flag about whether his interests are with big oil companies or with the people of South Florida. Clearly, Allen West puts big oil’s interests above the people of South Florida by allowing the oil companies to take dangerous risks with our treasured beaches. Because West is once again fighting to impose Sarah Palin’s values on South Florida, voters are again rejecting the West/Palin extremist agenda.”

On Fox Business News, host Stuart Varney asked West, “Are you running on drill for our oil and drill now, because that is an issue in Florida?”
 
“Yes of course, I am,” West said. “That would be an incredible economic move for us down for us here in Florida. And the other thing you have to realize is that China is already buying up leases from Cuba with the opportunity to use slant drilling, where they can offset the platforms, they can come right into our continental shelf and take those resources away from us.”
 
Varney pressed West further, “Would they really be in favor of drilling offshore, Palm Beach? Would they really?”
 
“Yes they would,” West said.

Contrary to West’s version of the facts, China has no international offshore drilling agreement or current leases with Cuba or any other nation.

Despite the severity of the Gulf oil spill, West could only muster the words “very worrisome” in discussing the situation in a Sunday blog post on his website.
 
Jotkoff added: “West’s only response to the crisis has been a two word mention on his campaign blog. Rather than hiding behind his computer screen, maybe Allen West could demonstrate a little courage and publicly declare his continued support for drilling off Florida’s beaches. This just goes to show how breathtakingly out-of-touch he is with the residents of the 22nd District.”

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